I think that all the plausible posts from credible users should be stickied so that they dont get brushed aside by the "133t MMORPGFPSRTS!!1!!!!!" posts that all to often flood the helpwanted forum.

I also think that the anti-minor thing is a load of crap from a non-legal standpoint. If you cant tell if a person is a minor from their posts, then they are obviously mature enough to be here.

I'm sure you're aware of this, but as soon as GDNet determines that a user is < 13 we have to suspend them under the COPPA act. That is really the bare minimum age protection we provide, and before the COPPA act we largely just didn't give a shit unless you made trouble.

That said, I can understand why team leaders would avoid younger charges at least on a legal angle.

It's one thing if you can secure the rights with the parent/guardian ahead of time and strictly partition the work in case you get screwed. However, we (neither GDNet nor the team leader) really can't enforce this. Bob can join, say he's 25 when he's really 15, and his parents can go insane and demand payment for the work. Neither GDNet nor the team leader would be aware of this.

Just on a matter of maturity, I'm not comfortable with turning down anyone capable of doing good work -- regardless of gender, age, colour, religion, etc. I was actually on my way to close that thread from all of the ageist garbage being kicked around when Shannon decided to bring it up with the other moderators.

I will keep the thread going for awhile longer, but may have to terminate its life soon if it goes back into the realm of crap.

One solution is to go the SourceForge route where projects are listed for everyone to view. Create a GD Showcase-like section called GD In-Development where people list their projects plus a number of positions they need filling. People can view the projects available and apply to fill the positions. Any information is passed directly from the project coordinator to the people who contact them and all those "l33t hax0rs" can be ignored.

This method would also give the rest of the community an idea of what is actually going on in terms of homebrew development. GDNet+ members running a project would also get a nice boost as their project could be listed in the GD In-Development section and get some extra niceties for being paid-up members.

My 2 cents (or being British... my 50p)

I think we ought to reinstitute Oluseyi's old "Zero Tolerance" policy. Anyone doing any flaming in the HW forum gets their post deleted and a warning level increase (and if your level's above 30% or so, considered for a ban).

I'd also extend it to deleting topics that don't follow the HW template and aren't otherwise of comparable quality - y'know, the 20-line paragraph "ive got this kewl idea nd i need ppl to help me make it ur a wizard in roman times fighting dracula" posts - with a PM issued to the poster explaining why their topic has been deleted.

I'd go with a system similar to the "Game Jobs" one, and just ditch the forum entirely. Since with it you could specify the positions needed - price, whether there are screenshots, etc - those who are needed for your project would be found quicker, and they wouldn't have to sift through the countless "MMORPG!!~~1" threads. Might work, might not. A vote for me is a vote for humanity!